Posted on 07/13/2012 8:35:18 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning and happy Friday (the 13th) to all of my FRiends and fellow gardeners! My special thanks go to Ellendra for posting the thread while I took a week to go to the mountains. I was hoping to find relief from the heat, only to find that it was in the 90's in SE Montana, not much cooler than here in Louisiana.
I began the long process of becoming a fly fisherman, and I am hooked, so to speak. Just what I needed ... another hobby to compete for my limited time!
Today is the first time I've seen the sun since Monday ... the rain followed me all the way from Kansas City, and it has stayed around. Thank goodness! It is my sincere hope that y'all are receiving some beneficial rainfall.
Before leaving on the trip, I spent 4 days making fig preserves ... the Italian White Fig tree was covered in a bumper crop, unlike anything I've ever seen. I also got all of my wild plum juice turned into beautiful jelly, and harvested another 5-gallon bucket of honey from the beeyard.
So ... what's going on with you???
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
Great idea, thank you. I’ll do that. My gardens are done. Getting them ready for fall planting.
Here’s the recipe. 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook, page 196. I’ve been making these so long the book opens right up to it.
Filled Cookies (double the recipe)
1/2 C soft shortening
1 C sugar
2 eggs
2 T cream (or milk or water)
1 t vanilla
2 1/2 C sifted flour
1/4 t soda (I use baking powder instead)
1/2 t salt
Chill dough. Roll out to 1/8th inch and cut into 3” to 4” circles. Place on lightly sprayed cookie sheet. Put a spoon (eye ball it to your size dough) of preserves in the center of a circle of dough. Place another circle of dough on top and press edges together with finger. You don’t want the edges too thin or they’ll burn before the cookie is done but you want them pressed together enough so the preserves don’t leak out (some will). Poke a fork in the top for a steam vent.
Bake - 400 degrees for 10+ minutes or until golden.
This is a great way to use up old jams and preserves that were lost and forgotten in the back of the pantry. You can use jelly but it tends to leak out more. It’s a lot like a pop tart except really tasty and will hold up in a lunch box or a grab and go breakfast.
Dear Mrs Blonde,
It is with great sadness that I must report that when I upgraded my Mac OS a few months ago it deleted a Java plugin and have been unable to upload photos to either Fotki or Flikr. I finally threw myself at the feet of the local Guru and he showed how, when and why Apple turned it off but now my browsers, Camino and Firefox won’t play nice with me or I have forgotten everything I never new about uploading photos. If you are desperate for a fix I can post some of last years stunning garden vistas.
Yours in Great Sorrow,
Sir Tube Bender
I have an inexpensive Nesco. I dried my first peaches last week. They taste great.
I got about six slices per peach. I dipped the peach slices in a solution of fresh squeezed lemon in about a pint of water, and then spread them on the rack skin side down. I turned them a couple of times and rotated the racks a couple of times. If I has a better dehydrator (Excalibur), I probably would not need to do that.
Next time I might skin them to speed up the drying.
Give it a shot.
I think I'm going to have to try something else on the little 3/4" caterpillar things that are just defoliating my zucchini and cantaloupe. They get on the back side of the leaf, fold it over to make a little pocket, and close it up with a silk looking material. I'm thinking maybe a MAAP torch.
i’m not clever enough to have done that by intent. I had a whole dehydrator load going and forgot them overnight and into the next afternoon. When I remembered them they were already sort of the caramelized color. i tasted one to see if they tasted burned or something and they were like snacks. yummy.
We watched a segment on food dehydration by Alton Brown, and he used a box fan and a few disposable A/C filters. The climate in TN is so humid that it would take an eternity to dry something without electrical intervention.
I’d love to dehydrate things naturally, but TN is *wet*!
Me too.
I was going to pass. Last Fall's planting thrived and survived the Winter but most of it disappearted at mid-Spring. No idea why. Harvested a whopping six cloves.
But, I'll try one more time. Ordered:
Early Italian: "This hefty garlic infuses entreés, soups and salads with sweet, mild flavor. These easy-growing, widely adapted garlics will keep 10 months. Produces larger cloves than most softnecks, making it easier to handle. Better adapted to summer heat, too. Garlic may begin growth late in fall or early in spring. Sun. Product Details Sun: Full Sun Spread: 4 inches Height: 18-24 inches Days to Maturity: 90-150 days Sowing Method: Direct Sow"
Sonoran "is very early harvesting so you have garlic before anyone else and it grows well in the great American Southwest from Austin/San Antonio all the way to San Diego. Harvests VERY early - late spring to early Summer - stores until around November-December. Product Details Sun: Full Sun Spread: 4 inches Height: 18-24 inches Thinning: 4 inches Days to Maturity: 90-210 days Sowing Method: Direct Sow "
Was that the segment where he bought all his equipment at the Auto Wrecking Yard?
The skins are where all of the vitamins and minerals are ... I leave them on. It is really a matter of personal preference though.
Red and I have both tried various methods for preserving eggplant. Breaded and frozen didn't turn out well ... the texture was awful. Blanching and freezing produced a mushy mess when thawed. I've pinged Red to see if he ever did anything that worked. The only thing I haven't tried is pressure canning in jars. If I raw pack it, it might produce something that could be dried off, breaded and fried. I'll update if I come up with anything worth a darn.
My local hardware store puts the cattle panels on sale for $19 once or twice a year and I always buy a few. I must have 30 of them stored in the equipment shed. Another 10 are in the garden. Except the one in the garden that my husband backed over with his truck, I've never had to replace a panel. They are VERY sturdy. Like the article indicated, I cut them with a large bolt cutter thingee.
I was having java issues until I installed Chrome. No problems since then. Don't know if that is Apple friendly.
BTW, page 196 in my book is shortbread cookies, which I found humorous since I mentioned that very thing earlier.
Good morning. They cost about $22.00 here. Up until now I have never been interested. I never checked for sales. Believe me! I will now. :-)
I don’t think so but I could be wrong. :p
No, I do that with the Datils. Ghost Peppers actually do it to themselves. They get loads of flowers that do nothing but wither up and fall off, even if you try pollinating them by hand. Then one day, bam!
It's all a matter of control. If you take a raw Bhut, pop it in your mouth and start chewing you're going to feel some vicious heat. Take a quarter teaspoon of dried Bhut flakes and add it to a pot of beans and you have a nice dish with just the right balance of heat and flavor. Almost all of our Bhuts get dried, ground up with a mortar and pestle then put up in jars. When I send people seeds I always include a bit of the flakes so they can see what it's like.
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